Professional C 2005 with .NET 3.0

Christian Nagel

Bill Evjen

Jay Glynn

Morgan Skinner

Karli Watson

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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© 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

ISBN: 9780470124727

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Dedication

This edition of Pro C# is dedicated to the memory of Joan Skinner (May 3, 1924–November 20, 2006) and Donald Skinner (January 21, 1930–November 20, 2006).

Love is as strong as death,
Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can the floods drown it.

From Mums hymnbook

Morgan Skinner, February 2007

To Sofia, Henri, and Kalle!

Bill Evjen

About the Authors

Christian Nagel is software architect and developer, associate of thinktecture, who offers training and consulting on how to design and develop Microsoft .NET solutions. He looks back to more than 20 years experience as a developer and software architect. Christian started his computing career with PDP 11 and VAX/VMS platforms, covering a variety of languages and platforms. Since the year 2000 - when .NET was just a technology preview - he has been working with various .NET technologies to build distributed business solutions. With his profound knowledge of Microsoft technologies, he has written numerous .NET books; is certified as Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and Professional Developer (MCPD) for Windows, Web, and Enterprise Applications; and he is Microsoft regional director and MVP for ASP.NET. Christian is a speaker at international conferences (TechEd, TechDays), and supports .NET user groups with INETA Europe (International .NET Association). You can contact Christian via his Web sites, www.christiannagel.com and www.thinktecture.com.

Bill Evjen is an active proponent of .NET technologies and community-based learning initiatives for .NET. He has been actively involved with .NET since the first bits were released in 2000. In the same year, Bill founded the St. Louis .NET User Group (www.stlnet.org), one of the world’s first such groups. Bill is also the founder and former executive director of the International .NET Association (www.ineta.org), which represents more than 450,000 members worldwide.

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Bill is an acclaimed author (more than 13 books to date) and speaker on ASP.NET and XML Web services. He has written or co-written Professional C# 2005, Professional VB 2005, and the bestselling Professional ASP.NET 2.0, as well as ASP.NET Professional Secrets, XML Web Services for ASP.NET, Web Services Enhancements: Understanding the WSE for Enterprise Applications, Visual Basic .NET Bible, and more. In addition to writing, Bill is a speaker at numerous conferences, including DevConnections, VSLive, and TechEd. Along with these items, Bill works closely with Microsoft as a Microsoft regional director and he has received the Microsoft MVP designation for many years.

Bill is the technical architect for Lipper (www.lipperweb.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reuters, the international news and financial services company. He was graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington with a Russian language degree. When he isn’t tinkering on the computer, he can usually be found at his summer house in Toivakka, Finland. You can reach Bill at [e-mail]. He presently keeps his weblog at www.geekswithblogs.net/evjen.

Morgan Skinner began his computing career at a tender age on a Sinclair ZX80 at school, where he was underwhelmed by some code a teacher had written and so began programming in assembly language. After getting hooked on Z80 (which he believes is far better than those paltry three registers on the 6502), he graduated through the school’s ZX81s to his own ZX Spectrum.

Since then he’s used all sorts of languages and platforms, including VAX Macro Assembler, Pascal, Modula2, Smalltalk, X86 assembly language, PowerBuilder, C/C++, VB, and currently C#. He’s been programming in .NET since the PDC release in 2000, and liked it so much, he joined Microsoft in 2001. He now works in Premier Support for Developers and spends most of his time assisting customers with C#.

You can reach Morgan at www.morganskinner.com.

Jay Glynn started writing software nearly 20 years ago, writing applications for the PICK operating system using PICK basic. Since then, he has created software using Paradox PAL and Object PAL, Delphi, VBA, Visual Basic, C, C++, Java, and of course C#. He is currently a project coordinator and architect for a large financial services company in Nashville, Tennessee, working on software for the TabletPC platform. He can be contacted at [e-mail].

Karli Watson is a freelance author and the technical director of 3form Ltd (www.3form.net). Despite starting out by studying nanoscale physics, the lure of cold, hard cash proved too much and dragged Karli into the world of computing. He has since written numerous books on .NET and related technologies, SQL, mobile computing, and a novel that has yet to see the light of day (but that doesn’t have any computers in it). Karli is also known for his multicolored clothing, is a snowboarding enthusiast, and still wishes he had a cat.

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